I recently picked up a byf 44 98K and it has matching serial numbers on the bolt and receiver, but I'm unsure where to find the one on the barrel and stock. It also has a short forestock that i haven't seen on most K98's and I was curious if it may have had the original stock removed. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'll post pictures of it when I get the chance.
Trying to figure out the value of my K98k
- Thread starter TheKels
- Start date
Muncher 1953
Senior Member
photos are your fastest route to intelligent feedback. resize them to under 1mb each & they’ll upload ok, larger & you’ll get error messages from the forum software. photos are archived, & so limited in size. show full left & right sides so we can see how its cut down, or if a hunting stock. then clear close ups of right receiver, left receiver including the barrel between receiver & rear sight, any & all bolt markings, esp around the base of the handle, top, back & underside. if the original stock were numbered, it would be in the barrel channel, roughly under the rear sight. there might be pencil or stamped ink marks there as well. ‘later’ in the war, both barrel & receiver weren’t numbered, but which was changed over time & varied between manufacturers. there are usually other marks on the barrel indicating year, blank supplier, barrel finisher & lot #s.
Winchester Cowboy
Senior Member
It’s a good candidate to put on repro High Turret mounts and a scope and make a repro sniper.
Muncher 1953
Senior Member
your rifle was made into a hunting rifle, the original stock cut short, the bolt takedown device removed from the butt & the butt thinned, both receiver ring & rear bridge drilled & tapped for a civilian type scope mount, now removed. the bolt sn doesn’t match the receiver sn, which it should, so if all the bolt #s match each other, then the bolt matches itself, but not the rifle. when it left the factory, this rifle’s bolt & bolt parts (firing pin as well) had the same 4 digits (or last two) on each numbered part.
IF the bore is in decent shape, its worth about the same as any new bolt action rifle at a retail store, say $300. (sorry) It’s a good example of what was done many times since WW2 its been ‘sporterized’ & that removes any collector value. at least the barrel wasn’t cut down, or rear sight sleeve, messed with.
as @Winchester Cowboy posted above, the barreled action would make a starting point for a “high turret” sniper clone, as the oem style bases completely cover the modern scope base holes. should you decide to go that route, post here for gunsmith recommendations.
I could write more about what it was when shipped, but the photos tell the story. nice mix of blued & phosphated parts.
all parts matching, good condition, not messed with $2000-$3500+
stock wood not matching the all matching metal -50% (subject to exceptions)
bolt not matching a matching stock & action -30% (also subject to exceptions)
russian captures where only barrel & receiver match $600-$1200 depending on what it looks like
rifles made from parts but look like a military K98k $600-$1500 depending on same
IF the bore is in decent shape, its worth about the same as any new bolt action rifle at a retail store, say $300. (sorry) It’s a good example of what was done many times since WW2 its been ‘sporterized’ & that removes any collector value. at least the barrel wasn’t cut down, or rear sight sleeve, messed with.
as @Winchester Cowboy posted above, the barreled action would make a starting point for a “high turret” sniper clone, as the oem style bases completely cover the modern scope base holes. should you decide to go that route, post here for gunsmith recommendations.
I could write more about what it was when shipped, but the photos tell the story. nice mix of blued & phosphated parts.
all parts matching, good condition, not messed with $2000-$3500+
stock wood not matching the all matching metal -50% (subject to exceptions)
bolt not matching a matching stock & action -30% (also subject to exceptions)
russian captures where only barrel & receiver match $600-$1200 depending on what it looks like
rifles made from parts but look like a military K98k $600-$1500 depending on same